The Environmental Protection Agency has estimated between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year.
Less than 1 percent of these bags are recycled, and it actually costs more to recycle one than produce one. (Christian Science Monitor)
One ton of bags costs $4,000 to process and recycle, which can be then sold for $32. (San Francisco Department of the Environment)
Plastic bags account for more than 10 percent of garbage washed up on the U.S. coastline. (National Marine Debris Monitoring Program)
Bags eventually break down and contaminate soils and waterways. (CNN)
Nearly 200 species of sea life die from bags. (World Wildlife Fund)
Somewhere in the central Pacific, between California and Japan, floats an island of trash (mostly plastic bags) larger than Texas. (The Independent)
By using cloth bags, we save six plastic ones a week. That’s 288 bags a year. Or 22,176 in a lifetime. If one in five people in the U.S. did this, that’s 1.33 trillion bags in their lifetimes.
The Environmental Protection Agency has estimated between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year.
